


all the world drops dead

by magisterequitum



Category: Psy-Changeling - Nalini Singh
Genre: F/M, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-24
Updated: 2013-12-24
Packaged: 2018-01-05 20:28:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1098270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magisterequitum/pseuds/magisterequitum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After, Sahara asks, "What does this mean?"</p><p>She can both communicate with Kaleb presently physically in front of her and look at the bond that ties them on the psychic plane. It's to that new creation that her attention is drawn to. The Psy race do not have connection likes this. Not even parental tethers in this shape. If they had, it had long since been forgotten or stifled by Silence.</p>
            </blockquote>





	all the world drops dead

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sumeria](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sumeria/gifts).



> Happy Yuletide! I hope you enjoy this treat. I wanted to do something exploring just what the bond will be between them and the next steps they take together.

"This is what we'll say," Kaleb passes her the tablet and Sahara takes it from his outstretched hand. 

Mottled bruising colors his skin. It's only been a day, and they've truly not stopped moving at all. For a moment the deep purpled skin threatens to hold her entire attention and derail her down a path they have no time for currently. But she shakes her head and looks down. She focuses instead on how he'd said "we". 

It's a speech on the datapad's screen. He must have prepared what to say to their entire race while she was dressing for the day. He's given it to her though. To read, to check over, for approval as his eyes wait and call for her reaction. 

Together. 

Sahara reads the scripted message. She recalls their talk from the night before, how he didn't want to hide them, the bond that now connected them together. 

"This is good," she says softly, aware of the heat of his arm pressed against her where he leans close. "They will be afraid." A sentiment she's already thought of and voiced, but one that lingers heavily. 

Kaleb lifts his hand and sweeps his thumb across her cheekbone, the one that had been shattered before. Though there's a shadow to his cardinal gaze, it's his fingers touching her. The deliberate act of reaching out for her. His gaze holds hers, reading deeper into what she's hiding behind a clever turn of phrase. 

"It would be foolish not to be." 

A very Kaleb like answer, but one that rings with the truth. 

 

 

 

The announcement rings out across the Psy race, reverberating across the Net and echoing on every media outlet. It replays for an hour. 

A message that holds both fear and iron will in its delivery. 

 

 

 

After, Sahara asks, "What does this mean?"

She can both communicate with Kaleb presently physically in front of her and look at the bond that ties them on the psychic plane. It's to that new creation that her attention is drawn to. The Psy race do not have connection likes this. Not even parental tethers in this shape. If they had, it had long since been forgotten or stifled by Silence. 

Through Faith and the DarkRiver pack she's aware of changeling bonds. Knows too that it's possible for the two races to mix and tie themselves together. But what exists between Kaleb and her doesn't seem to be that. She's not afraid of it. She could never be afraid of Kaleb, but she's curious and it is unknown. 

A furrow forms between Kaleb's eyebrows and his hand shifts across the bed's sheets to rest on her thigh. They're kneeling on the bed, having returned to their home. 

That thought delights her deep inside. Their home, where he and she can be now, a fulfillment of her childhood wish. It makes her so happy and a smile teases at her lips. 

His hand is warm on her leg as he responds, breaking up her thoughts of them. "I don't know. I have no experience with this."

A tease even if his face remains impassive. 

Their minds are connected. Not unlike before where he'd sheltered her behind his shields, but different where she bleeds into him and vice versa. She can feel him as he touches the bond, turning his interest to it, and that close touch makes her body shiver. 

Sahara reaches out and settles her hands on his shoulders, feeling the shape of him and shifting closer. "We'll figure it out." 

_We will,_ he answers even as his hand moves to the small of her back, pulling her to him and already leaning down to kiss her. He likes to do that, kiss her, now that he can and she can, and they're both greedy for each other. 

 

 

 

"What do we do now?" Sahara asks later that week. 

She's eating an apple pastry of some sort, liking the cinnamon. Kaleb sits across from her at the small breakfast table, a glass of water and nothing else, eyeing her in amusement. His expression gives nothing away but she can feel it inside her. 

He knows what she's asking even if she's used minimal words. "The Arrows must be watched," he begins as if he's starting at the top of a list. No doubt he has made a list, many lists, and calculated each individual step. 

"Do you think Vasic will be well?" Other than Kaleb, the Arrow is damaged more than anyone she's met. She takes another bite. 

Kaleb's eyes un-focus for a moment, but then his attention is back on her. "Aden watches him. He has a task to do that will keep him busy." 

Sahara pauses in reaching for her cherry flavored water. She still drinks the nutrient supplement. It will take time for her body to fully recover. "A task?" 

He taps her glass, nudging it towards her. "There are those like Sascha Duncan who will be needed for the Net." 

She takes a sip and swallows, but her attention is much more towards their conversation. Nodding, she says, "Empaths who can provide stability. The Net cannot fall entirely-"

"But it can become something else. Something more." He finishes for her. Picking up his water, he finishes it, and then shifts the discussion. "Nikita and Anthony can be watched and managed. Businesses to be overseen. And us." 

Her mouth curves in a smile. _And us._

Kaleb nudges her glass at her again but his cardinal eyes pulse with white light.

 

 

 

One afternoon Sahara returns from registering for a ballet class to Kaleb's Moscow office and finds him with several books for her. 

It had been her idea to get back into her dancing. The field outside their home is perfectly lovely, but a class with an instructor gives her discipline and can help her retrain. Two times a week when she has the chance. 

She reads the titles on the covers. Her mouth parts and her eyebrows rise at the letters. "These are changeling texts." In actual print, and two she recognizes from the library at home. 

Kaleb glances at her sideways from his desk chair. His finger reaches out to touch her hip where she stands next to him. "I have set the Mind to search for anything in the past. These are not the same as what ours is, but it could prove illuminating."

Tracing a hand over the covers, she gives him a sly look. "They've been illuminating in other areas already." 

Where his outward countenance doesn't alter, she takes delight in the _flush_ she can feel across the bond from him. 

 

 

 

Sometimes Sahara wakes in the night when she cannot sleep. It doesn't happen as frequently as it used to. Under Tatiana's control she'd not slept all that much, and her body and mind now both try to readjust to living outside of that environment. It is better now. But still at times she cannot sleep fully through and will wake suddenly. 

When she doesn't, she rises from the bed and walks room to room till she's grounded herself again. If she feels extremely bereft she seeks the warm heat of Kaleb's skin next to her till he reaches out and rearranges her under his arm and chin. She doesn't wake him often. Even though she knows he would instantly, these are her battles to deal with and the foreign emotion of pride tickles at her. 

Tonight, Sahara slips from the bed and walks till she's standing in the office. In the silvery glass of the windows she counts the faint scars on her skin. 

 

 

 

In the morning Kaleb presses dry lips to the scar on her right side, just under where her ribs end. 

 

 

 

Judd Lauren is not what Sahara has expected when she meets him finally. 

Kaleb having business with both Nikita and the changeling packs, Sahara had jumped at the opportunity to spend the meeting time with Faith. A touch to her wrist and the promise that he could be there in an instant, she'd left him at the Duncan offices. Sahara's abilities needed only the nearest touch to defend herself. In truth, she worries more for him in a room full of people that wouldn't protect him. 

She can freely admit to being possessive and anxious. 

After lunch and a turn around a few shops, Vaughn patiently walking several yards behind them, she returns to building. She likes these times with her cousin. They'll make future plans; she hopes that maybe Mercy can join as well. 

As it is, there's a man standing next to Kaleb when she returns.

Sahara doesn't slow her walk, but she does analyze him as she comes forward. He's tall and looks comfortable in his dark clothing just as Kaleb does. The hair on her arms rises and that clues her in. 

Kaleb's introduction when the two men turn to her isn't truly needed. She's already made the connection. No one else Kaleb would look so relaxed next to in discussion. His fingertips brush against the fabric of her dress, and he inclines his head. "Sahara, this is Judd Lauren." 

She meets the sharp eyes that look down into her face, and extends her hand to shake. That movement, so very non-Psy, gets a tick at the corner of the man's face. Her next words surprise him further. "Thank you." 

_Thank you for watching him when I could not,_ she thinks to herself. 

Kaleb's fingers stutter against her side. 

 

 

 

Sahara snaps awake, her chest constricting and throat too tight. Her pulse beats too fast, and she's confused, blinking in the dark light of their bedroom. Tongue scraping over the roof of her mouth, she realizes then that it's not her who has had the nightmare. 

The bond has bled their minds together, something they'd realized after a few days, but this hasn't happened yet. She supposes she shouldn't be surprised. She catches her breath as fleeting images of Kaleb's past flitter across her mind. The brief things she's able to figure out from them coats her mind in anger. 

"Kaleb," she says, squirming and twisting her body around so she's sideways facing him. He's on his front, head tipped to the side and face drawn tight. With sure fingers she touches his bare shoulder and calls for him again. 

He jerks and opens his eyes. All black till they focus on her and then soft spots of white fill them, tiny and barely there. His throat works and he says quietly, "I'm sorry." 

Her heart clenches painfully and she shifts automatically. There's no one here but them in the dark of their bedroom, and so she reaches for him, winding her arms around his shoulders to drag him to her. He's held her before like this, but now it's she who puts his head against her collarbone and under her chin. She moves her hand and tunnels her fingers through his sweat damp hair. 

_Don't be sorry._ she tells him fiercely. _Don't ever be sorry._

 

 

 

They sometimes walk the distance from his office to the car to go home. Proprietary sakes that he doesn't always need to teleport somewhere. Their walk takes them outside the office building that overlooks the Kremlin, across the stone worked ground. 

She will hook her arm through his bent one, so that her forearm wrests against his elbow and her fingers loose on his wrist. These normal moments they are nothing except a couple walking on the street. They do not have to think on the Arrows, on the next announcement to be given to their race, to whether the changelings will cooperate and work with them. 

She likes these moments very much. 

A twinge of amusement trickles across her mind. She'd read in the changeling texts how the mating bonds allowed for the exchange of feelings and awareness, but theirs goes beyond that. There are no secrets to them. 

Sahara tilts her head up to find Kaleb staring down at her, an eyebrow raised. She blinks and realizes that his amusement has come from her looking at the people around them. In particular her gaze had been drawn to a boy and his guardian. The memory of his nightmare at the forefront of her thoughts. 

She looks again at the other people, two humans, and then back at him, softly saying, _You should have had that. Better._

Kaleb touches her cheek, the spot where it had been broken, and then he takes them home. 

 

 

 

He teleports them to their room and chases her down to the bed as she falls backwards. 

Their clothes they shed easily and her mouth is eager for his, her legs shifting so she can rise and follow him as he slides his unbuttoned shirt from his shoulders and arms. Finally naked as she is, his hand slides from her ribcage over her breastbone to curl around her throat. Loose, his knuckles brush against her jaw and his thumb sweeps against her skin. 

"I love you," she says as she winds her legs around his hips and pulls him to her. She wants his skin against hers, wants to imprint herself to him. 

His eyes change to that oily midnight hue and then his hands are cradling her face. He thrusts into her and kisses her, taking the noise she makes as his own. He kisses her mouth and then her jaw, then her neck and down to the top swells of her breasts. All the while telling her in between: 

her name and _I love you_

 

 

 

The air is warm enough, and Sahara sits on the lounge chair on the terrace. She's been reading a book on Slavic languages, and she rests a finger on her spot when the thought comes to her. She doesn't call for him, just reaches for the bond and thinks on him and her here. Only a few moments pass before she's joined on the terrace. 

Kaleb casts a look around, cufflinks glinting in the sunlight. He's dressed for the office, a business meeting for the day on a new investment. "Yes?"

She smiles, delighted that it'd worked. Different from the warm presence in the back of each other's minds of them always being present. Each little discovery a new hidden treasure. They have forever, a scary thought but one she holds with both hands as tight as him. 

Sahara shifts her legs on the lounge chair. "Will you sit with me? Can you?"

If Kaleb had been the type to roll his eyes, as she's seen Mercy do often, she thinks he would do so now. But he crosses the terrace to fold himself down in front of her, his back to her chest. "You are very needy," he says and pats her knee. An awkward movement as if he's unsure, but then his palm settles over her. 

Her grin stretches wider. A joke echoed across the black and gold tether. She thinks she will sleep fully tonight.


End file.
